System properties of monorail and its comparison with common transportation systems

Turkey is one of the developing countries in the world. Turkey has a rapid population increase and urbanization. Especially for the last 20 years, with the population doubling around two fold, there have been extensive residential area development. Cities have been growing north to south and east to west directions. During this progression, elevated living standards, development of industrial areas, and with the attachment to education and cultural activities, the need for transportation has been increased. This need has been tried to be met by mass transportation systems provided by municipal authorities, private transportation or individual vehicles. Individuals began to prefer private cars of their own as education level and life standards developed. Since more transportation alternatives demanded, the number of private cars increased noticeably. So much so that, the incidence of number of cars on traffic is much higher than the incidence of population increment. Especially in bigger cities with increase in the number of cars on traffic, which happens much faster than the urbanization and population increment, there happens to be problems such as traffic jam, noise pollution and air pollution. Mass transportation with fossil fuel operated vehicles were designed as a solution for these problems. However, these vehicles not only causes environmental pollution they also do not ensure reliability, comfort and speed. Hence, mass transportation is not an effective way to deal with the transportation need and problems of an urban city. While planning mass transportation of a city, some criteria such as environmental, economic and technological aspects are considered. From economical aspect, investment cost of transportation system during manufacturing is considered. Moreover, cost of operation and maintaining margin during operation is important to take in consideration. Other than cost-effective issues of a transportation system, it is important to pay regard to some criteria for minimizing the undesirable effects of the transport system on environment and individuals. Monorail transportation system, discussed in this thesis, is thought to affect city traffic by reducing the number of individual cars, buses and minibuses which are operating on existing routes. Considering the economical profit of these operating vehicles, there has to be a careful and versatile investigation. In this thesis, vehicle depreciation, fuel, oil, tire, general maintaining costs, statistical data's of accidents resulted in physical damage, injury, and death and the expense they caused and loss of labor are included. In this study, economical loss that is caused by wasted time due to traffic is calculated. A survey is conducted with people who lose their time because of traffic jam in different parts of Istanbul. With this survey it is aimed to determine the transportation system citizens prefer and which properties cause them to prefer aforesaid mass transportation. In case of a monorail line operating, it is determined that passengers agree to pay to make a fast, safe and comfortable travel, even if they have to pay more than standard transportation fees existed. When environmental criteria are considered for the planning of mass transport systems, fossil fuel consuming vehicles have a considerably high emission passenger per km. Especially, private vehicles that are used by individuals and lack of efficient maintenance, have higher emission rates. Moreover, road vehicles, in particular fee collecting minibuses, cause an awful lot of noise pollution. Noise pollution has become one of the major problems of crowded cities, which affects mental and physical health of individuals. Although mass transport road vehicles are thought to be more effective on the environmental front than private cars, they are in fact cause noise pollution more than expected. While choosing transportation system, it is utmost important to take in hand the requirements of the era. To meet the needs of an era of our own, systems that are technologically updated, comfortable, easy to organize and high security should be considered. In the light of these criteria, in this thesis monorail system is compared with buses, minibuses, metro and such that are used commonly. Especially in crowded cities, it is not realistic to expect comfort, safety and order from road vehicles. Mass transportation systems that are operating on road, also have a difficulty to travel. Moreover, they cannot comply with their schedules due to drop-off and pick-up of passengers. According to the condition of the road travelling can be uncomfortable. With the increasing living standards, individuals prefer private cars rather than mass transportation for comfort purposes. This causes even more traffic jam. Monorail system is discussed from different aspects to provide comfortable, safe and rapid transportation for citizens. Monorail systems have the ability to provide comfort, safety, order and many more specialty that can be expected from a transport system. Furthermore, according to the survey which is conducted with citizens, passengers prefer to be able to communicate while they are travelling. Foremost the employee on the move, students and other employees, different majorities of the society prefer to maintain communication while using transportation. Therefore, monorail system which travels above ground that is comfortable, rapid and safe becomes even more alluring. Within the scope of this thesis, monorail system elements are mentioned thoroughly. Under the title named monorail construction and planning of its facilities, guideway, beams, viaducts, stations and signaling systems are discussed in depth. Even though the monorail system has a history of more than a century, since there is no example of a monorail in Turkey makes it difficult to understand how the monorail guideway is constructed. This lack of information causes a difficulty to make a comparison. An issue discussed in this study that, due to its superior specifications, it is possible to construct monorail guideways even in highly populated areas. Monorail guideway construction is made above the ground, beams are pre-fabricated and assembled on the construction site. Therefore, monorail construction needs minimal worksite which makes monorail more advantageous. Moreover, while comparing monorail rolling stocks for their ability to climb high slopes and turn narrow curves, the need for transportation can be met by different monorail rolling stock with different properties that are manufactured by different companies. Construction costs of bus rapid transit (metrobus) and metro lines in Turkey and monorail lines that are constructed or planned around the world are compared on kilometer basis. Based on these comparisons, if a careful planning is conducted, monorail rolling stocks have a 30-40% lower operation and construction costs when they are compared with transportation systems that have similar passenger capacity. Superiorities of monorail lines over other mass transportation systems are listed and, how these superior properties gain favor for economy, individuals and environment are mentioned. Using renewable energy sources for operating monorail lines to lower the operating costs is possible. Since Turkey imports petrol and vast majority of the vehicles on traffic use petroleum, this has a huge impact on country's economy. Especially by lowering the usage of petrol on mass transportation systems can have a positive impact on country's economy. Decreased usage of petrol also lowers the emission and this would be an important step to solve environmental issues. As it is environmental friendly and has a capacity to meet individual's expectations and demands, monorail could be a rational solution for highly populated cities in Turkey, in particular Istanbul. Furthermore, since Turkey's hours of sunshine is long and solar energy potential is high, monorails operate on elevated guideways can have an advantage. Since monorail lines are not underground like metro lines, both monorails and monorail stations gets direct sunlight. By using the sunlight, it is possible to use this solar energy on monorail rolling stocks and stations. It is foreseen that by placing solar panels on monorails, monorail operating energy could be self-produced and this can lower the operation costs.